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The UK government has said it supports the European Parliament's plan to let individual countries decide their own spam policy, something that is bad news for UK consumers since the government is known to be swaying towards an opt-out approach to unsolicited mail.

A DTI spokesman told news site Netimperative: “The recommendation before the EU... is something we support fully."

The proposal that each country can decide its own approach to spam has been put forward in the latest incarnation of the Telecoms Data Protection Directive in a bid to get it past the first reading and into EU law.

The directive is currently with the Committee on Citizens' Freedoms and Rights, Justice and Home Affairs, which has been told to come to an agreement after the legislation fell apart when first presented to the Parliament.

This proposal may smooth the way for acceptance but effectively removes its most important aspect (for UK citizens anyway) as UK politicians and government are known to be in favour of the opt-out approach to spam - namely that you will have to ask to be removed from a mailing list. The other option is the opt-in approach where people have to actively agree to be put on a particular mailing list.

British MEP Michael Cashman annoyed many when he attempted to justify a pro-spam stance back in July. Since then the Directive has been batted back and forth in a bid to find consensus. Sadly, the latest version still has several major flaws, as we reported a week ago.